Winds In the East
by Mtbookworm
Summary: Molly Baxter had a near perfect life. Prefect town, perfect family, and a perfect best friend. then everything took a turn for the worst. after losing everyone she loves and being moved to Manhattan, can the newsies show her that not all things end badly, and can she show the newsies that there is more to life then soaking scabs and selling papes?


**Wow, I am really getting into fanfiction. Being the musical theater freak I am, I have been obsessed with Newsies for the past three years. This idea has been in my head for a while. Now, I will give you fair warning. Though I will try not to, the main character in this story might appear slightly Mary Sueish, but that is because she is kind of supposed to. If you didn't get it from the title, she is supposed to be a Mary Poppins or a Truly Scrumptious type character (if you don't know Truly Scrumptious is the girl from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). Also this story may have song lyrics but I promise to put full disclaimers. That aside, hope you like the story. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Newsies or any Mary Poppins or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang reverences I may make in this story. They both belong to Disney, and CCBB belongs to Warfield Productions. The song in this chapter is from CCBB called Hushabye Mountain.**

**Winds in the East**

**Prologue: A Mist Coming In**

As she heard the click and clack of the train wheels beneath her, Molly Baxter stared out the window of the rolling hills of the New York country side. These were the hills of her childhood, where she had laughed and plaid to her hearts content as a child. Where had family had picnics together. But all those times seemed so distant. She reached to remember her most recent happy memory. Even that memory ended in a sour note.

_It was bright sunny day in the small town of Albany, New York. Albany was a relatively new town with many inhabitants from all over. Seven-year-old Molly Baxter looked around the town square at all of the people of her home. There was Madame Zolin, her dance teacher, who was from Russia. She was stern woman with a thin face and greying hair, that had once been raven black, pulled back into a bun, but she really was very kind if you caught her in the right mood. There were the Campbells from Scotland. There was also Miss Aileen and her grandson Andrew, who happened to be Molly's best friend, both from Ireland. The whole town was gathered her for the Fourth of July. All of the girls were in their prettiest dresses and the men were clean-shaven. There was music, dancing, and food. Molly love days like these._

_ "Well Good Golly Miss Molly, that's a right pretty dress you are wearing." Said a voice from behind her. She turned to see Andrew come and sit down next to her and throw an arm around her. Andrew was sort for a boy his age, he was the same size as Molly, but you could tell he would be handsome one day. "A right pretty dress, for a right pretty girl." He said to her with a cheeky grin. Molly thought she was still to little to be pretty, at least not like all those girls from the town her brothers pined over so much. No they all had full, dark hair and pretty, deep eyes. Molly on the other hand had thin hair the color of straw and light milky blue eyes. Though so did her mother, and Molly thought her mother was the most beautiful woman in town._

_ "Stop it Dandy Andy, you are always such a charmer." She said teasing him._

_ "I am sorry if I was taught to be gentleman." He said mocking offense._

_ "You may be lot of things Andy, but you are no gentleman." She said to her best friend._

_"That hurt, Molly, that really hurt." He joked with her but the smile vanished from his face when he noticed that she wasn't smiling back. "Good Golly Miss Molly, why the long face." He asked. Molly was staring off in one direction. What she was staring at was all the people dancing to the music in the square. Half the people who were dancing where her brothers, she did have seven of them; Matthew, Mark, Mason, Malcolm, Marcus, Marius, and Mac. The names of her brother were quite funny to her. Her family had a big obsession with the letter M. By that definition even her name was funny. Mrs. Aileen called her "Little Molly Marie". But back to her brother, all of them were tall strapping and handsome, with her fathers brown hair and brown eyes. She loved all of them dearly but they were most of he time quite the over protective brothers. Lord help the poor soul who tried to court her one day. That brought her back to the thought she was on._

_ "Will some one ever dance with me like?" she sighed. Each and every one of her brothers was dancing with a girl from the town, even Mac, who was only ten. "I mean what's the point of all those dance lessons if no one will ever ask me to dance?" she said putting her hands on her chin. With that, Andy jumped up, grabbed Molly's hand, pulled her up, and started dragging her to the dance floor._

_ "Andy, what are you doing!" she screeched._

_ "You said you wanted to dance, so lets dance." He said grabbing her other hand like he had seen the older boys do and began spinning her around. All of the other couples seemed to stop dancing and stare at the two newest people to join the dance. They weren't the best dance partners, Molly was clearly the better of the two and she was the one leading, but they certainly didn't care. Andy was whirling his best friend around the dance floor, and Moly was laughing and giggling with delight. When the song ended, the crowd cheered for the two young friends. That was when the two realized everyone had stopped to watch them, and they both blushed a deep scarlet._

_ "Oh my goodness! Molly, Andrew, that was wonderful! Simply wonderful!" came a voice from behind them. They turned to see Martha Baxter coming towards them. She was pretty woman, with a kind face and warm eyes. She just looked motherly and always had kind word for everyone. All of the people in the town called her the "Angel of Albany", and she was deserving of the title._

_ "Thank you very much, Mrs. Baxter." Andy said politely to the women. He had known Mrs. Baxter since he could remember and she always been like a mother to him._

_ "Andrew, dear, how many times have told you, please call me Mrs. Martha." She said sweetly to the boy._

_ "Yes mam, Mrs. Baxt… I mean, Mrs. Martha." Andy replied sheepishly._

_ "And you, my dear Molly, I am glad all those dance lessons are paying off. You were magnificent dear! Even Madame Zulin thought so. Now, it's getting late. Andrew, I have already talked to your grandmother and we have arranged for you to stay at our house tonight. Now come along, Pish Tosh._

_ Later that night the two friends found themselves in Molly's room with Mrs. Baxter. She was braiding Molly's hair getting the two ready for bed._

_ "Mother, will you sing us the Lullaby?" Molly asked her mother as she tucked her in. _

_ "Of course dear." Mrs. Baxter replied, taking the music box and its key off Molly bedside table and winding it up for her. Then she began to sing._

_**A gentle breeze from Hushabye Mountain**_

_**Softly blows o'er Lullaby Bay**_

_**It fills the sails of boats that are waiting**_

_**Waiting to sail your worries away**_

_**It isn't far to Hushabye Mountain**_

_**And your boat waits down by the quay**_

_**The winds of night so softly are sighing**_

_**Soon they will fly your troubles to the sea**_

_**So close your eyes on Hushabye Mountain**_

_**Wave good...bye to cares of the day**_

_**And watch your boat from Hushabye Mountain**_

_**Sail far away from Lullaby Bay.**_

_ "Good night, darlings." Mrs. Baxter said as she blew out the candle and left the room._

_ Molly lay there for minute and though she couldn't see, she heard Andy crying. He was tough boy, but he still was only eight. And though she didn't quite know why, she knew watching her and her mother made Andy sad. She knew his mother died and that he didn't have a father. That's why she loved having him over. It made him happy when he was over because he felt like part of their family, which he was, and Molly loved seeing him happy. Yes, everything was great, but Molly didn't know that this was just the calm before the storm._

_ It wasn't until weeks later, at Miss Aileen's funeral, that Molly had realized why Andy had stayed over that one night. From that night on, Miss Aileen was getting sicker and sicker. She heard all the adults calling it the Scarlet Fever. Andy started spending time at the Baxter's house more and more. Then, one faithful day in August, Miss Aileen drew her last breath. The funeral was simple, for Miss Aileen was not a flashy woman. That night, Molly was awoken to a tap on her window. She got up and walked over to see Andy sitting in the tree right by her window with a sack over his shoulder._

_ "Andy! What are you doing it's the middle if the night?" she exclaimed to her friend in the tree._

_ "I came to say Goodbye, Molly." He replied sadly._

_ "Goodbye? What do you mean Goodbye?" Of course she knew what goodbye meant, she just didn't know why he was saying it._

_ "Molly, now that my Gran is gone, there aint here for me any more. I'm leavin."_

_ "Where are you going to go, Andy." She said already feeling the tears well up in her eyes. She couldn't believe he was leaving. He pulled a picture out of his pocket and handed it to her._

_ "There, that's the Brooklyn Bridge. That's where I am going." He said proudly, but then he noticed her tears. "Good Golly Miss Molly, please don't cry."_

_ "I can't help it, Andy I'm going to miss you."_

_ "I am going to miss you to Molly. But I will make you a promise. Every year on this day, I will wait on the Brooklyn Bridge, and if you ever find yourself in New York City, on this day you come to the Brooklyn Bridge."_

_ "You promise?"_

_ "I promise."_

_ "Wait Andy before you go there is something I want to give you." Molly quickly ran and got something from her bedside table and brought it back to the window. "Here. It's the key to the music box. I wont listen to it until I see you again. It will give you something to remember me by."_

_ "I could never forget you. Goodbye Molly." He said as he climbed out of the tree and ran off into the night._

_ "I could never forget you either, Dandy Andy."_

Then began the downward spiral of Molly Marie Baxter's Life. The Scarlet fever ravaged the town. After Andy's grandmother, it took Molly's father when she was 8.. When she was 9 it took her brother Mark, and by the time she was 13 it had taken Mason, Malcolm, Marcus, and Marius too. Theses were all hard blows for Molly. She had always been Daddy's little princess and now her king was gone. Her brothers had always been her nights in shining armor, always there to protect her when she needed it, and now they were gone to. Though the biggest blow came when she was 14, and the Fever took her mother. Martha Baxter had been taxed not only physically but emotional having already lost five sons and a husband and it was too much for her to take. Many questioned if she had died of the Fever or of a broken heart. Never the less, Molly held her mothers hand as she died and cried over the body when she was gone. The once loud and happy Baxter household was now still and sad. Her oldest brother Matthew worked so hard to support them that they hardly noticed when he began to show signs and the fever took him to. Shortly after he was gone, her only remaining brother, Mac, decided that Albany wasn't the place for the Baxters anymore. When Molly was sixteen, Mac left for the west with a promise that he send for her when he found a place for them. So while he was gone, she lived with Madame Zulin.

At sixteen, you could clearly tell Molly Marie Baxter wasn't that little girl dancing in the square any more. For one she had grown up, and had developed soft blond hair with a gentle curl, a slight womanly figure, and clear blue eyes, though there was no light in them. She had closed herself off, and had hardly spoken since her mother died, nor had she cried.

One day Madame Zulin had had enough of her mopping. She sat the girl down and asked he to tell her how she felt. At first Molly wouldn't say anything, but then all of the emotions she had kept inside burst through, and she cried. She cried for Mrs. Aileen, for her father, for her brothers. She cried for Andy and she cried for her mother. She cried for what felt like hours, and when she was done, She felt better. The pain was still there of course but it wasn't as bad. She realized her family wouldn't want her to mope and cry. They would want her to be happy and cheerful Molly. So that was the philosophy she kept, and from then on you never saw Molly Baxter without a smile on her face. Not even when Madame Zulin to passes away. No, Molly, though she did grieve the lost of her beloved teacher, she would not let it affect her. Now she found herself on a train bound for New York City with her music box in her lap. And that, is where our story begins.

**Hope you guys liked it. Tell me what you think. This was a bit of a sad chapter. Next one should be happier. Despite the fact that I tried to keep it mysterious, some might be able to guess who Andy is. Comment who you think it might be.**


End file.
